I am planning on helping out a few local high school students with a photo project at their school next week. A couple of the images will require a completely black background, the other a completely white background.

These will not be professional shots, therefore;

- I have absolutely no time (or budget) to order neither backdrops, stands nor lighting equipment.

- We will be shooting with only the equipment we have at this time; cameras and off camera flashes (again, we can't purchase any extra flashes or any other equipment).

- The most I can purchase at this time are a few yards of black cloth, a few yards of white cloth at a local fabric store. There are no photo supply stores in my city (or within 200 miles of my city), so I can't purchase a custom muslin. I am stuck with the only option of buying from the local fabric store.

- We can darken or lighten the background afterwards in Photoshop.

I would like to know what would be the least reflective fabric I can use for this project. I'm not sure if cotton, polyester or some other type of fabric would be the least reflective. Any suggestions?

snegron wrote:
...I would like to know what would be the least reflective fabric I can use for this project. I'm not sure if cotton, polyester or some other type of fabric would be the least reflective.

In my experience, cotton is usually less reflective, although a poly-cotton blend can be almost as good.

One common and reasonably-priced option is to use flat bed sheets from Walmart, Target, etc. You can get different sizes depending on your needs, and they're already hemmed so there's no risk of fraying in use or with laundering.

Unless you can shoot with enough background-subject distance to blur the BG, be sure to iron them or steam them before use, and roll them rather than fold them for transport.

Totally black is absorbing all/reflecting none ... i.e. "void" of light being returned toward your lens. Do you have any space where you can shoot into a void (say a dark hallway/closet/interior room lights off/barn/shed/etc.) as your black background?

The light falling on your subject will reflect accordingly for your appropriate exposure, the light entering a good void will not reflect and you'll have a naturally occurring black background. Even if you pick up some stray light in your bg with an "imperfect" void, it can be pretty easy to clean up in post to black ... both come at a price that might meet your budget.

BrianO wrote:
In my experience, cotton is usually less reflective, although a poly-cotton blend can be almost as good.

One common and reasonably-priced option is to use flat bed sheets from Walmart, Target, etc. You can get different sizes depending on your needs, and they're already hemmed so there's no risk of fraying in use or with laundering.

Unless you can shoot with enough background-subject distance to blur the BG, be sure to iron them or steam them before use, and roll them rather than fold them for transport.

I agree with BrianO here. I've used black bed sheets from Walmart. The important thing is to have enough separation so you do not light the background. Flag the light to keep your main subject light from spilling onto the background and keep a relatively high shutter speed to avoid any "ambient" spill light. Dim the lights as much as possible.

While you're at Walmart, check the curtains aisle for a "blackout" curtain. It is black on one side and "off-white" on the other. I've use mine for a variety of things (mental note @ time for a new one).

RustyBug wrote:
While you're at Walmart, check the curtains aisle for a "blackout" curtain. It is black on one side and "off-white" on the other. I've use mine for a variety of things (mental note @ time for a new one).

I was just there and looked for a new one. It seems that the only ones (in my Walmart store) that I could find were polyester (sheen). My old one is a much flatter black. They did have one that was a kind of crush/plush/velvet (still polyester though) ... will have to explore it a bit more later. May have to look elsewhere for something without that polyester/sheen.

I originally got mine to double as a "under the hood" dark cloth while doing DOF previews.

I also live where I have to improvise. I recently went the black-sheets-on-sale-at-Macy's route. Also, there are building supply options. At Home Depot I picked up (to keep around) a black felt-like material that goes under roofing. It is in a roll about 4-5 feet wide, and the roll means that it has no wrinkles when deployed. It is not as black as velvet, which is what I used to keep around in huge quantity in the days when I had a studio (but used it mostly on location...)